King Vulture: Mission Accomplished

Back in Costa Rica

We return to Costa Rica in hopes of finding some birds we missed in 2024. We also decided to take a tour of downtown San Jose, to see how the people actually live instead of just the wildlife area. Here are some random notes.

Chris has a packing cube full of packing cubes that one can select from when packing. Mike is assigned blue this trip.

We learned that Costa Rica was named because the Europeans thought there was a lot of gold here so it was the rich coast 

“The coffee probably isn’t very strong here” is unlikely to be true since coffee is grown here

We are staying at the same hotel we stayed at 20 years ago near the airport before our tour starts. I think it was a little prettier 20 years ago but it’s still nice.

So far, we have discovered that Mike has forgotten deodorant, lip balm and his toothbrush. Will update as the trip goes on.

Trip Highlights

The monkey and the crocodile

Mike showed me this photo and asked, what were we doing. I said looking at monkeys. So he called this my monkey face.

This, on the other hand, is my non smiling crocodile face. 

Time to go home.

Last stop: Xandari resort and spa

For our last two nights, we stayed at Xandari.   It’s close to the airport, and rather tranquil with just 24 villas. We got the nature lovers room that overlooks some trees.

The property has some trails and we went for a walk in the morning.

We did see another mot mot, which is on their logo.  The best new bird was the long-tailed manakin, but we only got glimpses in the early morning.

We also saw a white-eared ground sparrow which sounded boring since it’s a sparrow, but had some nice color.

We did find another bird, a golden-crowned warbler which we didn’t try hard to photograph since we were looking for the manakin.

There was a woody woodpecker as well.

After birding, we relaxed a bit and then had some massages at the spa.  Mike’s was wonderful. Chris felt like aliens were probing her body, but now she thinks maybe it was good for her and she’ll feel better tomorrow. With reflexology you can never tell what you will get. Either she will have bruises on the bottom of her feet and need a cart at the airport or will feel like a million bucks.

I’d be safe and ‘cool’ if I was in LA. 🎼🎼 California dreaming’

This nature lovers room has no AC - a big domed ceiling with a fan instead. If you stay away from home long enough, returning looks pretty special. No bugs - at least when we departed our home 😂,  good USA temperature control - safe drinking water - reliable favorite pillows. I wonder how long it will take us to stop getting up at four am for birding.

 

Tourist traps

For the most part, we avoid touristy areas with cheap souvenirs.  However, we’ve had some long drives and our drivers stopped at a few.  One place had good empanadas and was by a river with howler monkeys and iguanas.

The best souvenirs are made in China. Here’s a colorful bird with its bill on the top of the head above the eyes.

We were going to get this for our new grandson Adam, but I’m afraid it would hinder his learning of the natural world.